The Sketchy Command of Pegasus
What exactly is the deal with Pegasus? Reports of an officer being shot in front of the crew by the Admiral. Sexual abuse of Cylon prisoners. Two men not getting a fair trial. In this whole guessing game of "who's a Cylon", it sure seems like Admiral Cain is one of them. "She had no choice" but to launch her alert fighters. To borrow the phrase, "What Would Adama Do?" In this situation, he would have negotiated, talked it through with the insurgent bunch, and found a better end. (I just loved that moment when Adama froze, then gave his orders to launch Vipers.)
It would be nice to think that all of this is "just a dream", but this is not the case. It's a fun little game to watch for the survivor count at the beginning of the show and track the additions and subtractions. Last week there were around 47,859, and this week that increased to 48,604 (for those of you who are reading this in the wee hours of the morning, that's about 750 more people). If this was "all a dream", R&D probably would not have added them to the running total--this tally usually includes everything that happens in the episode. So, Pegasus is not a dream, but there is still something very odd about it. Take everything carnal and essentially evil about humanity and stick it on a ship with a pig of a Lieutenant and a bloodthirsty Admiral at the helm, and you have the Pegasus (what an elegant name for such a savage ship). On Galactica, there is a love for life. Sharon is being treated more like a person, and the bonds of friendship are their source for morale (i.e. the building of the Blackbird). On Pegasus, their is a love for death and detruction. Gross mental and physical abuse* of a Cylon prisoner, running totals of kills on the sides of the Vipers, seemingly regular executions. To me, the most likely explanation is that Admiral Cain is a Cylon, and most of the rest are humans.
*Yet another tantalizing hint from the horse's mouth that Cylons can be crazy, just like humans.
It would be nice to think that all of this is "just a dream", but this is not the case. It's a fun little game to watch for the survivor count at the beginning of the show and track the additions and subtractions. Last week there were around 47,859, and this week that increased to 48,604 (for those of you who are reading this in the wee hours of the morning, that's about 750 more people). If this was "all a dream", R&D probably would not have added them to the running total--this tally usually includes everything that happens in the episode. So, Pegasus is not a dream, but there is still something very odd about it. Take everything carnal and essentially evil about humanity and stick it on a ship with a pig of a Lieutenant and a bloodthirsty Admiral at the helm, and you have the Pegasus (what an elegant name for such a savage ship). On Galactica, there is a love for life. Sharon is being treated more like a person, and the bonds of friendship are their source for morale (i.e. the building of the Blackbird). On Pegasus, their is a love for death and detruction. Gross mental and physical abuse* of a Cylon prisoner, running totals of kills on the sides of the Vipers, seemingly regular executions. To me, the most likely explanation is that Admiral Cain is a Cylon, and most of the rest are humans.
*Yet another tantalizing hint from the horse's mouth that Cylons can be crazy, just like humans.
posted by (and Ernie) at 11:51 PM
12 Comments:
The survivor count went from 47,853 to 49,605.
Great episode. Not sure what to do with my time until January.
One question, really. Why doesn't the President just promote Adama?
Thanks for the clarification.
As far as Adama being promoted by the Roslyn...four possibilities why she didn't do it:
a) That's not the way their legal system works.
b) She forgot about that one--she is a "Kindergarten teacher", after all.
c) Laura is too nice to do something like that.
d) Cain didn't go overtly kill-happy within her knowledge (everything just exploded very quickly without the knowledge of the civilians). In which case, when the President finds out, she may very well promote Adama or put Cain in the brig (if that is allowed by their legal system).
Cain is definitely not a Cylon, and I'm realizing Baltar isn't either.
RDM's trying to show that Cylons and human are the same--both do bad things. The rape-a-thon aboard the Pegasus just goes to show that the farms on Caprica are not unanswered atrocities, as it were. It defeats the purpose of the whole "Cylons are people too" if Cain is a toaster.
Baltar probably isn't because if the fetus within Boomer is his and Six's child, then SOMEONE has to provide the human half--and Six probably ain't doing that. The fact that Six once showed up where everyone could see her also lends credence to the theory that Baltar is not a Cylon.
Everything but Cain's ship and Galactica was affected by a computer virus (Cain has a modern ship, in the dockyard; Galactica is really old and not succeptible). Bombs go off, other ships around them explode, she loses 700 men, orders a jump to anywhere. Now, Cain, in the Bible, is a farmer that kills his brother--the first murderer. The Admiral is a killer.
Pegasus is being used somehow. There will be a Cylon agent somewhere. I agree that it would be effective to make Cain human to show that both can be evil, but we have a wide crop of characters that also show that. As of now, it's up in the air as to who's a Cylon, but from the story, it's most likely that it is Cain.
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I really don't think Cain is a Cylon. If she's a Cylon, then the evil acts on the Pegasus are not based in humanity--Cylons would be the ones that inspired it.
There was something else odd.... Cain's pause when the president asked her "how did you get out?" Cain paused and asks for a drink.... it seemed at that moment that she was stalling to invent a story... or maybe just a way of showing disrespect to the president.
I have a feeling that the story about other battlestars being destroyed, the nukes, loosing 700 men and the blind jump out of space dock are somehow altered from the truth to make herself seem more heroic... my guess is that she did something more cowardly, like running when the other ships were fighting back. It's not just the pause that makes me suspicious, it's also this killing spree she seems to be on. She kills someone she trusts and has worked with for years? For not obeying orders why not throw him into the brig first. I keep thinking that maybe she killed 700 of her own crew.... but that wouldn't make sense. Some members of her crew are obviously in high spirits... I can understand the bridge crew being cowed.... but not the whole ship.
Did anyone notice if there were any female crew members other than Cain on Pegasus? Wouldn't some of the women have objected to the treatment of the cylon? It seemed when they took us to the bridge, that there were no women there. Did Cain "kill her sisters"? Were the 700 crewmen women? Gosh, I'm reasoning this out as I go along.... what if she traded the women to the cylons in order to be allowed to escape the attack. I dunno.... guess the rest of the crew would have noticed they were gone.
Well that's my theory for now... and it's only been 2 days since the end of the season!?
I have to say that this is the most provacative episode yet (and for that reason, the best I have seen so far). Here are my thoughts/responses, in no particular order:
-- Starchild nailed it... Cain's "blind jump" story seems incredible at best. She's hiding something (hence Tigh and Adama's musings about looking at the Pegasus' logbooks seems more like foreshadowing than mere wishful thinking). Did she turn tail and flee? I don't think so... that would have cost her the loyalty of the crew. I would bet that she made some serious tactical error that cost the lives of those 700... an error that somehow, was only known by her and her then XO (setting the stage for his refusal to follow an order and his "elimination").
--Is Cain a Cylon? In short, No. Granted, her behaviour merits her placement on the "suspected Cylon" list, but I cannot jibe "Cain as a Cylon" with the abuse and rape of Six/Gina.
--I must give high marks to the writing in this episode. If the theme of finding the "humanity" of one's enemy hasn't been prevalent enough previously, we got a "2-by-4 over the head's" worth on Friday nite. Unfortunately, this point was entirely lost on the mods over at colonialfleets.com... who thought that the episode was touting gang rape as a valid interrogation technique. This clearly shows that their blind devotion to TOS and/or the Singer-DeSanto project has rendered them unable to consider the new series with anything approaching an open mind. Their loss IMHO. But I digress... I thought that the abuse and rape of Six/Gina and Boomer2 was particularly timely given the Abu-Graib debacle. We sacrifice most, if not all of our humanity when we treat our enemies so. The point was well made in this episode and I salute the writers for taking this topic on.
--I thought that Cain's assessment of the dicipline (or lack thereof) on Galactica was bang on. It was a definite "truth hurts" moment. Ah, but it's so much easier to point out the mote in someone else's eye (while ignoring the plank in your own).
--In response to Starchild's query on female crew aboard Pegasus, I seem to recall some female Viper pilots... they were few and far between tho.
--The pacing of this episode was bang on. The hour disappeared in what seemed like only fifteen minutes. Both my wife and I were caught short by the "to be continued..." We are both ready for January to be here NOW!
BRIEF ASIDE TO adama is a cylon - I need a place to vent some about colonialfleets, could you please make blog entry here for that purpose? Purdy-puhleaze?
Peace!
Reepicheep
I think the thing that Cain is hiding is that she is no longer an admiral. My guess (and a totally speculative one at that) was that she lost her rank and command just before the Cylon attack. The "paperwork" she was working on was related to that, but before the new commander could arrive, the Cylons intervened.
I think the blind jump story is true. The universe is like 99.99% empty of physical matter so chances are, a blind jump would have succeeded. Still risky because appearing 10 miles from a neutron star is practically the same as jumping right into its heart. But a blind jump is within the realm of possibility to me.
I think the need to deal with the immediate crisis of surviving the initial Cylon attack allowed Cain to assume command without technically having the authority. Later, when things had calmed down but Cain started Pegasus on an aggressive attack mission, the XO refused. Having been officially dismissed from the Colonial Fleet would give the XO perfect justification to refuse the order since Cain was no longer his superior officer. He was calling Cain's bluff.
Except that Cain wasn't bluffing. She was determined to maintain command and decided the only way to do it was kill the XO in cold blood, in front of the entire CIC.
Now think about that when you think of labeling the entire Pegasus crew as evil, sick bastards. You are Pegasus-equivalent of Dualla or Gaeta. There is a sudden dispute between Cain and the XO. The tension is thick in the air. Cain clamly asks the XO to had over the pistol (which he does, because he's calling her bluff and to prove that he has no fear of her) and Cain takes the gun and shoots the XO in the head point blank.
Cain's next words are (pointing to the stunned about-to-be XO), "You're the new XO. Proceed with the attack," having already forgotten about the bloody mess lying there in front of her.
What are you going to do? Are you going to say, "Hey, Admiral, that was uncalled for!" Or are you going to be thinking, "Holy frak! She just offed the XO!" quickly followed by "Admiral Cain is frakkin' crazy! If that could happen to the XO then it could definitely happen to me."
So think about it. What are you going to do? Protest? Organize a mutiny? There's no where to run. No way to resign. You can't call in sick. There are no vacation days. For all you know, Pegasus in the only human ship left in the entire universe and one day, the odds will catch up and the entire ship will be blasted into space dust.
I think most people would decide they are dead already. Because there's no hope for a better life, nothing to look forward to except to take down as many Cylons as you can before you die.
In this kind of environment, moral questions cease to exist because the only thing left in a truly hopeless environment is duty. The crew of the Pegasus, whether they are one of the depraved group who decide raping Cylons is R&R or simply the maintenance guys or medics with nothing to do but your job, is still human.
The point being, there is a fine line between the crew of the Pegasus and the Galactica. Galactica, in fact, was headed down the very path Pegasus was taking, don't forget.
So when you hear generalities like "The crew of Pegasus is vile, everyone on Galatica are our heroes!", that's just as simplistic a viewpoint as the ones who are now rejecting BSG because of the raw unflinching realism.
Ron Moore himself stated in one of his podcasts that it was interesting to see so many people saying, "I hate Tigh!" because of the mistakes in command he made after Adama was shot. He pointed out that Tigh had saved the entire ship from imminent destruction on several occasions, but there was this human tendency to wipe away all the good because of a single mistake or character flaw.
So, let's go back to the new Pegasus XO. Why did he tell that story to Tigh and then later recant it very poorly by saying it was a joke? To me, it seemed to me that the Pegasus XO was putting out a cry for help. He was stuck in this situation where there was no escape, doing a job that was not his own, a job that he probably hates.
He told Tigh the story because he wanted someone to know that all is not well on Pegasus. Maybe Tigh could help. Or at least someone would understand his torment. He then recanted the story because he realized that neither Tigh nor Adama could help him or the other crew of Pegasus, and if the story got out, he would end up in the same state as his predecessor.
In this light, does that make the Pegasus XO "evil?" What about the civilian deck chief? The anonymous faces in the CIC? Who on Pegaus can truly be called evil besides the ones who have freely given their souls to nilhistic depravity? Or are we doing what exactly the characters in BSG are doing, ready to demonize the other side on a moment's notice in anticipation of the killing that is about to occur, in order to secure a place within our own moral world?
The task that Ron Moore and the writers of BSG to be telling the stories they have is dauting because the issues are complex not for the mere sake of complexity, but because people in general want simple answers to difficult questions. Just my statement that there are probably still a lot of good people even in the corrosive environment of Pegasus will no doubt be misinterpreted as a justification for all the undeniably horrible acts that have been committed.
That is, until you realize that Galactica and Pegasus are two sides of the same coin, and switch in situations and events can easily cause that coin to flip.
That was quite well put. I suppose I have been putting too much in generalities. When I say "this is evil", I mean that the essence of the ship, how it is in general being portrayed is as such.
The coin can indeed easily flip...but you said, "Galactica, in fact, was headed down the very path Pegasus was taking, don't forget." What occasion/circumstance are you talking about? When Tigh took over?
Cain is not a Cylon. She's just the ugly side of humanity. In the end, she's killed by the blond Cylon.
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